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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24911716">Chara's Tale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenacula/pseuds/Serenacula'>Serenacula</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Enemies to Friends, Forgiveness, Good Chara (Undertale), Loneliness, Nonbinary Chara &amp; Frisk (Undertale), Other, Post-Undertale Genocide Route</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 07:28:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,026</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24911716</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenacula/pseuds/Serenacula</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After thousands of resets, Frisk finally resorted to genocide, in a desperate attempt to escape. Chara was stuck inside Frisk, unable to do anything as their loved ones were murdered. Committed to fixing things, Chara comes up with a plan to kill them both. Things go awry.</p><p>Now the two of them are separated, and must travel through the Underground together, trying to find a way out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chara &amp; Frisk (Undertale)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Chara's Tale</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, this concept piece was kinda written as a point of frustration, at so many stories painting Chara as the bad guy. They literally only woke up because Frisk started killing everybody, right? So I wanted to write a story that expresses this interpretation.</p><p>Also, my mind cannot seem to avoid being fascinated by stories where the characters are trapped for immeasurable lengths of time and unable to die. So there's that.</p><p>Hope y'all enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>In The Beginning</strong>
</p><p>Chara suddenly woke up. Their body was in pain, but nothing awful. They could feel flowers underneath them. They... They had died right? And... Asriel... Had died. Their brother. He’d refused to kill the humans. And they both died.</p><p>Chara didn’t remember well, their head was foggy. Asriel was dead. Their best friend was dead, and it was Chara’s plan that killed him. They wanted to cry, but couldn’t.</p><p>Suddenly their body moved by itself. Chara struggled to control it, but nothing. They were stuck. Were they possessed?</p><p>It didn’t take Chara long to realise that they were the one doing the possessing, rather than the one possessed. Not that it meant much. The body wasn’t in their control, so who it originally belonged to was something of a moot point.</p><p>The person they were possessing almost immediately met a mean flower, but somehow managed to avoid dying before help came...</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>The Split</strong>
</p><p>Chara put on their strongest scary face. Hiding their fear, their terror down into the depths of their soul. They would fix this. They would confront Frisk, and force them to reset, whether they liked it or not. And when they did, Chara was going to destroy their combined soul, right on the moment of the reset.</p><p>That was the plan. This could not happen again, they wouldn’t let it. Frisk had turned out to be even worse than the humans they remembered from the surface, and Chara had a duty to protect monsterkind. To protect their people, as one of the Royal Siblings.</p><p>They didn’t know if it would work, but they had to try.</p><p>Frisk didn’t want to reset. But Frisk was terrified of Chara. Good, it was what Chara had been looking for. They felt it as Frisk started the reset. Right at the very moment of activation, Chara put everything they had into ripping their shared soul apart.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>After the Split</strong>
</p><p>Chara woke up. And lamented for a long moment that it hadn’t worked. They heard a rustling, and instincts long-forgotten had them look up at the noise. The realisation that they could move their body came as a shock. The reason why even moreso.</p><p>Next to them, a terrified looking Frisk was trying to crawl away from them.</p><p>Frisk was still alive.</p><p>Chara was free.</p><p>Somehow both of them were surviving with half a soul each.</p><p>Chara didn’t know what to do with any of these revelations. Even being able to move their own body was difficult and strange, after so much time, so many endless resets without being able to move a muscle voluntarily.</p><p>Still, they got the hang of it pretty quick. Chara was a quick learner. They unsteadily got up, and started walking towards Frisk. The plan was supposed to kill Frisk, but Chara decided they could finish the job if they had to.</p><p>“I’M SORRY. I’m so sorry Chara. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t know you were there.” Frisk started sobbing. The tears and voice were haunting.</p><p>Chara stopped. Despite the persona they put on, they weren’t evil. The concept of killing someone who was crying and apologising like that left them feeling sick to their stomach.</p><p>“You killed them Frisk.” Chara’s voice croaked. “You killed them all. Everyone. My mother. My father. All the monsters. Papyrus, Undyne, f-fucking monster kid. Your friends, my FAMILY, and you turned them all to dust.”</p><p>“I didn’t know you were there. I didn’t know anyone was watching. I thought nobody would remember.” Frisk kept sobbing. Excuses.</p><p>“Why shouldn’t I kill you Frisk. You killed my mother. Our mother. You made me watch, forced me to feel it as you stabbed her. As you played with her dust like it was fucking talcom powder. I was awake, Frisk, and you... You forced me to kill my own mum.” Chara was shaking.</p><p>“I’m so sorry. I was lonely. I was just so lonely. I thought I could do something, anything, to break the loop. It was the only thing I hadn’t tried.” Frisk curled up into themself. “I wish I could take it back. I wish it never happened. I’m so sorry Chara.”</p><p>Chara wanted to cry, but they wouldn’t. They couldn’t, not in front of this human that had done those awful things.</p><p>“I know you were lonely. Of course I know. At least you could talk with them, Frisk, I was stuck inside you. I couldn’t... I was trapped there Frisk. Hundred and hundreds and hundreds of fucking resets, and I couldn’t even move my pinky, until you forced my hand. And even then I couldn’t stop you, couldn’t take control for more than a few seconds. For what good it did.” Chara glared darkly at Frisk.</p><p>Frisk was trying to pull their own hair out, dry heaving. They looked a mess. Chara hated how it just made them deflate. Their anger, the adrenaline, all left them. Truth be told, they knew it really had been worse for Frisk. Chara had spent most of the time half-asleep, fading out from reality. They didn’t know how many resets there were, beyond a lot. Probably thousands. Frisk knew. Frisk had struggled through every single one, had talked the same conversations over and over and over, trying to find a way out.</p><p>And that was the fucking crux of it, wasn’t it. Chara had wanted to help Frisk so badly. Had wanted to reach out and hug them and tell them it would be alright, that they weren’t alone. Frisk had spent so much time alone.</p><p>And then Frisk had killed Chara’s family and everyone they loved. And Chara had to not only watch, but had to feel it. The senseless slaughter.</p><p>Chara looked away. They didn’t feel like killing Frisk anymore. Flowey was watching them in the distance, silent. So apparently the soulless mockery of their brother had heard all of that. Great. Well, he’d known Chara was there anyways. The stupid flower had evidently presumed Chara was the one doing the killing, heaven knows why, but it didn’t matter.</p><p>Chara had been the one to end it with Flowey, not Frisk. After finally taking control, they had just wanted to end it, had needed to take out their anger on something, and the stupid flower that stole their brother’s memories was the final straw.</p><p>They regretted it. They didn’t regret finishing off Sans, ending that stupid pointless fight, but even though Flowey made Chara feel sick, he hadn’t deserved to be killed like that. But Chara had just needed to end it. Frisk was broken. Chara was terrified they might not reset, just leaving Chara in that empty world of dust.</p><p>“... Sorry.” They muttered at Flowey. He looked so relieved, Chara could read his train of thought like a book. God, he was just like Asriel in some ways, always chasing after them even as a soulless husk. Chara hated it. They had just murdered him in cold blood and a single word of apology was all it took to make him think they were friends again. Siblings again.</p><p>Chara turned away from him, blocking out the words he tried to tell them. Toriel was coming soon. Chara couldn’t bring themself to face her. Frisk was still curled up on the ground uselessly. Chara walked into the shadows, where Toriel wouldn’t be able to see them.</p>
<hr/><p>Frisk went through the motions of being guided by Toriel, not talking much. They had obviously realised Chara was missing, but played along with Toriel anyway. A few worried glances behind them were the only sign that they were even looking for Chara.</p><p>Chara followed behind silently. They didn’t really know why they were hiding from Toriel. They rationalised it as not wanting her to be hurt by seeing them alive. But deep down they knew it was because the last time they had seen Toriel, they had plunged a knife into her heart, and felt her turn to dust in their hands. It didn’t matter that Frisk was the one in control of their body. It still hurt.</p><p>It was just another thing Frisk had stolen from them.</p><p>When Toriel finally left Frisk alone, they spent several long minutes just standing there, staring at the phone Toriel had given them. Chara watched from a distance. Frisk wasn’t calling Toriel. They hadn’t done that in many hundreds of resets, so this wasn’t really unusual.</p><p>Chara remembered the first time they had watched Frisk call Toriel. Before all the resets. The very first time they had gone through the Underground. Frisk had started to make Chara jealous, calling Toriel mum. And then Chara, in their little internal bubble, had burst into laughter when a grinning Frisk immediately started flirting with her.</p><p>Chara hated how vividly that memory came to them. It wasn’t fair. Not after what Frisk had done. Frisk still wasn’t moving, and Chara reluctantly walked up to them.</p><p>“Let’s go.” They said tonelessly. Frisk looked startled.</p><p>“C-Chara. Oh. Hi.” Frisk said with a small wave and a weak smile. Chara just glared at them with their scary face. Frisk wilted.</p><p>“You’re still a-angry, of course. You should be. Yes.” Frisk mumbled, fidgeting. Chara tried hold their temper in. They could still feel that white-hot rage, burning to rip Frisk apart. To make them feel some small iota of Chara’s pain.</p><p>But Chara was sick of killing. Their hands still felt dusty, and they hated it.</p><p>Chara wiped their hands on their striped jumper. Frisk noticed, but said nothing.</p><p>They walked along the path. They solved puzzles together. Chara did not say a single word to Frisk.</p><p>Frisk didn’t speak either. But occasionally Frisk would stop and look at the ground for several minutes. Chara knew instinctively that each time was Frisk remembering one of the monsters that they had killed. Chara did not interrupt. They just waited for Frisk to continue.</p><p>The first word spoken only happened when they met Napstablook.</p><p>They needed to talk to her to get past, of course. Frisk was the one who actually took the plunge. Napstablook was one of the few they hadn’t killed. Perhaps it was a small blessing, because Frisk somehow managed to cheer her up. They even told her a joke. After Napstablook left, Frisk and Chara walked in silence for a while longer.</p><p>“... That joke was new.” Chara said quietly. Frisk looked at them, stunned that Chara had actually spoken.</p><p>“Uhh, yeah! I... I was working on it. I wanted to cheer yo- her. Up. I wanted to cheer her up.” Frisk said quietly, their words stunted. They hadn’t told any new jokes in a long time. At some point in the endless resets, they had stopped trying, just recycling old ones instead. It hadn’t mattered when Frisk didn’t think they had an audience. When people just laughed the same way over and over, as if it was the first time the jokes had been told. It mattered now.</p><p>Chara said nothing. Frisk decided the joke was a failure. Frisk decided to try again later.</p><p>A dry audience was better than no audience.</p><p>They did more puzzles together, in silence. Eventually the two were at Toriel’s house, and Chara paused, looking nervously at the archway into the garden.</p><p>“I... I don’t want her to know I’m here.” Chara said, looking at Frisk. “Don’t tell her.”</p><p>Many thoughts went through Frisk’s head in that moment. A part of them, a big part, lingered on the fact that Chara’s appearance was the biggest change to occur in the Underworld since the resets had begun. That meant the story could change. And maybe a way to stop the loop could be found if they just pulled that thread a little.</p><p>But that sort of thinking was what had lead to the... To last time. It wasn’t their place. Frisk couldn’t do that to Chara, especially not after what they had already done. So they just nodded in response, and Chara went off to hide. Frisk took a deep breath, and walked into the garden where Toriel was patting herself down, trying to find her phone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't know if this story will ever receive updates. But by default all my stories are available for adoption by writers who wanna do their own thing with them. So if you like the concept and wanna play with it, please feel free to go ahead and use it, just give me a heads up!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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